How the Native Forward Scholars Fund Is Helping Students Reach Their Goals

Across the country, November is celebrated as Native American Heritage Month. It is a time to recognize the culture, traditions, and achievements of Native Americans and Alaska Natives. For many Native Americans, part of celebrating and honoring their history means reaching back to help others.

Such is the case for Deb Haaland, currently serving as the US Secretary of the Interior. As the department’s first Native secretary, Haaland feels responsible for using her position to help right historical wrongs.

Haaland’s position and impact show the power that can come when marginalized people are able to leverage their resources—or are given resources to begin with. 

In 2021, Halaand called on Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland, to conduct a review of the history of federal Indian boarding schools. The resulting reports—one released in 2022 and one released earlier this year—documented the horrors that Native students faced in being forcibly sent to the schools.

The schools stripped young children of their families and culture; students were subjected to horrendous emotional and physical violence, and many died. As NPQ reported in August, “The study found 53 marked and 21 unmarked burial sites at 65 different school sites.” There were at least 973 documented deaths of Native American children at these boarding schools and likely other deaths that were unaccounted for.

Undoubtedly, there is a connection between these reports shining light on the abuses Native students endured and President Biden ultimately issuing a formal apology for the federal government’s role in running the boarding schools. Once the extent of the damage was uncovered, it could no longer be ignored. As Biden noted, it was “a blot on American history.”

Native Forward has allocated resources to over 20,000 scholars from more than 500 tribes across the country.

Haaland’s position and impact show the power that can come when marginalized people are able to leverage their resources—or are given resources to begin with.

Creating Pathways for Opportunity

Before Halannd was an elected official, and before she was appointed to serve in a presidential cabinet, she was a young student on her way to college. Haaland’s career trajectory was largely shaped by the fact that she received resources for college from the Native Forward Scholars Fund.

The largest scholarship provider to Native students in the United States since it was first founded over 50 years ago, Native Forward has allocated resources to over 20,000 scholars from more than 500 tribes across the country. These funds have contributed to over 1,600 law degrees and more than 2,200 PhDs.

Since its origin, one of the main goals of the scholarship fund was to help Native people—not just to receive an education but to be able to self-determine and gain resources that would benefit their entire community.

“It’s one thing to be…working to change the criminal justice system or the foster care system, but it’s quite a different thing to create that pathway of opportunity.”

“It started with our founders and a real drive to support tribal sovereignty and make sure that we had educated people who were tribal lawyers, fighting for treaty and sovereignty rights and having educators who were educating our own children instead of having to go into boarding schools,” said Angelique Albert, the CEO of Native Forward in an interview with NPQ.

For Albert, creating a pathway of opportunity for young people is a major reason she wanted to get involved with Native Forward. A member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Albert’s earlier career involved advocating for young people who had been swept up in the school-to-prison pipeline or foster care system. She came to realize that it was necessary to offer young people hope.

“I’ve seen so many of our young people die. I’ve seen so many of our young people lost to the prison pipeline. It’s one thing to be on the ground and working to change the criminal justice season or the foster care system, but it’s quite a different thing to create that pathway of opportunity,” she said.

Albert notes that over the past 55 years, Native Forward has worked to refine its services to ensure that students have the resources to attend and finish college at rates far higher than the national average for Native students.

Holly Cook Macarro, the board chair for Native Forward and an enrolled member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, described the organization’s impact in an interview with NPQ: “Native Forward’s fingerprints and impact really are in every corner of Indian country—from Capitol Hill to nonprofit institutions. All across the country, the leaders of Indian country—a large majority of them have received scholarships from Native Forward.”

Growing up, Macarro was familiar with Native Forward, which at that time was known as the American Indian Graduate Center. She recalls that her mother, who lived on a reservation in Minnesota, was part of the first wave of Native students who went to college, sharing that many of those who went to college with her mother also became pillars in their community.

As she grew up in Minnesota, Macarro saw the disparities in resources between Native and non-Native students. She reflects on her experience of watching cousins and other community members struggle due to a lack of infrastructure. “Sometimes it’s the inability to get a new laptop or a ride to class,” she said. “Those things can set you back in a way that makes you unable to finish and complete your higher education goals.”

And that’s exactly why Macarro wanted to get involved with Native Forward—to help students achieve their goals.

Hope for the Future Generations

The biggest obstacle to helping students, Albert and Macarro note, is not having enough resources, but that is starting to change because of recent philanthropic donations.

In 2020, Native Forward received a $20 million no-strings-attached grant from MacKenzie Scott, greatly increasing the organization’s resources. Macarro said this grant has changed how Native Forward views its long-term strategy.

Instead of scrambling financially, the organization is better equipped to take time and plan. Additional individual donations have also increased as a direct result of Scott’s donation.

“One thing I hope to see for Native Forward is that our alumni and others who have benefited from our scholarships…continue to support the next generation of students,” Macarro said. “It’s something we always talk about as Native people—looking seven generations forward—because that long view really grounds a person in how they plan and look at things.”